Today's Features
AUDIT & ASSURANCE

Why “Busy” Is the Wrong Metric in Audit


And the Planning Assumptions Firms Get Wrong.

By William Englehaupt

Walk through almost any accounting firm during busy season, and the signals are familiar: calendars packed wall-to-wall, inboxes filling faster than they can be cleared, and professionals praised for constantly stepping up to meet demands. In many firms, this visible intensity is taken as proof of productivity. If people are busy, the thinking goes, work must be getting done.

MORE Audit & Assurance

But “busy” is not a productivity metric. It is a symptom. And when firms mistake it for performance, they quietly undermine quality, predictability, and morale.

Accounting is not alone in this trap, but the profession is especially vulnerable to it. Long hours and constant responsiveness feel reassuring in high-risk environments. They create the appearance of control. What they rarely produce is a reliable flow.

READ MORE →

PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Value Pricing: Three Major Drivers

It’s a perfect storm. Embrace it.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Ron Baker is known as the value pricing guru in the accounting space. He was way before his time in separating the price of labor from the value of a product. Labor-based pricing is based on the difficulty of doing a task. Value pricing looks at everything from the client’s viewpoint. His argument is as follows: the value you provide your customer, regardless of the deliverable, is worth way more than the hour.

MORE by Jody Padar
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

While value pricing isn’t new, automation has driven it to the forefront. Automation gives CPAs up to 90 percent more time to provide valuable services based on their expertise, knowledge base and experience.

Although it was clear the cloud was going to have a disruptive impact on our business model, Ron Baker would always explain: it’s not the technology that’s going to make value pricing the way to go, the value’s always been there.

READ MORE →

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Why Solos Need Practice Continuation Agreements

Woman and man shaking hands across a desk
It’s a favor, so negotiate generously.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide

A Practice Continuation Agreement (PCA) is a written contract between a sole practitioner and another firm for the latter to take over the solo’s practice, either permanently or temporarily, in the event of a sudden, unexpected event that prevents the solo from working, most commonly a health issue.

MORE by Marc Rosenberg
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Logically, it would make total sense for every one of the 30,000 sole practitioners in the U.S. to have a PCA in place. After all, the solo has no other partners to take her place and in the vast majority of cases, the solo’s staff doesn’t have the skill level or the certifications needed to run the practice in the absence of the owner.
READ MORE →

MARKETING & SALES

Eight Life Questions for Your Business Success

young businesswoman looking in mirror

Ignoring personal issues will affect your work.

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

You know the identity of your first client, and if you buy into you, then there’s a good chance of potential clients being prepared to do so, too.

MORE by Martin Bissett
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

This is what we must remember about the purchasing of professional services such as accounting. If your prospective client is a Grade A or B style opportunity for your firm, then they are not buying the services you provide per se. The services are the vehicles of delivery; the means to the end.
READ MORE →

PRO Member Exclusive

Quality Work Vs. Quality Service

 

young man in suit staring at laptop screen

They’re not the same thing.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Over the years, I have enjoyed reading and internalizing the insights of David Maister, highly regarded author, speaker and practice management consultant.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Many years ago (circa 1993), Maister wrote a professional service firms article titled “Quality Work Doesn’t Mean Quality Service.”
READ MORE →